How do you use leftover pickle juice?

I have lots of pickles.  For several years DH was on the hunt for the dill pickle he remembered from the movie theaters or sitting in jars on the counter at the grocery store.  Everything we bought was too salty or too vinegary.  I make pickles but he will not try them.  We even took a trip to where they were suppose to make good pickles.  It turned out to be a tourist trap.    So I just happened to read a cooking blog where the lady was raving about a pickle that was so good she bought them to give as gifts.    I think she bought them at an auto repair shop. I looked up where we could buy them and it turned out to be a real good dill pickle.  So now the search has ended.

So when DH finishes a jar of pickles, I put those reject pickles into the leftover pickle juice.  I have lots of bell peppers so I filled a jar of pickle juice with the bell pepper.

I am learning to ferment so I took the fermented pickle juice and added bell peppers.  I added it to a jar of chutney to make a fermented chutney.

How do you use left over pickle juice?

My H drinks dill pickle juice (1/2C.-1C. usually) to ease leg cramps after long hikes.
Sometimes I add sliced fresh cucumbers to a jar for lightly brined pickles.

I seldom get pickle jars.  But, I do go through quite a few pickled peppers, & garden veggies.
Those jars always get a 2nd batch of something put in them (often more...'til the goodness wears out).
Onion slices, bell peppers, celery, or whatever is approaching useful life in the 'fridge.

This may not be the answer someone expected......I use it to treat poison ivy when I get it. My grandmother, who grew up in a small coal mining town called Nanticoke PA taught me this...Larry

When making rice and beans for dinner, instead of using water for the rice I'll use pickle juice if there is some left over.

I have a friend who pickles garlic.  I wonder if you could just soak the cloves in second use brine?  Sounds wonderful to me!

toilet cleaning and in salad dressings
i think, onions can be boilt and then soaked in it to add to salads.

do you know that you can take store bought pickles (made with sugar, vinegar, salt) and ferment them?

Tobias Ber wrote:do you know that you can take store bought pickles (made with sugar, vinegar, salt) and ferment them?

Yes, I saw the post you made:

https://permies.com/t/52911/fermentation/kitchen/fermenting-store-bought-pickles

I found a recipe for taking store bought ketchup and fermenting it.  I had homemade tomato chutney that was going bad so I added fermented juice from bell peppers and fermented the chutney.



39-ways-to-use-leftover-pickle-juice

Liven up store-bought barbecue sauce by adding pickle juice to taste by the tablespoonful.
Try adding pickle juice to your favorite macaroni and cheese recipe.
Marinate soft white cheese in it.
Mixed with a little beef broth it makes a great broth for Korean style cold noodles.
If you are a juicer, add a bit of brine to your vegetable juice.
Elevate boring hummus to something more spicy with a few dashes of the salty brine.
Use pickle juice to perk up boring poached fish! You will never go back.
Throw some pickle juice into your meatloaf mix along with all the other condiments in it!
Try making pickled watermelon rind. Take off the skin, and then drop the pieces into some pickle juice.

I like putting hard boiled eggs into pickle juice for tangy eggs!



I ran across this today and thought it was interesting!  Make homemade pickle juice!

Homemade Pickle Juice

1/2 tsp Dill weed, dried
1 clove Garlic
2 tbsp Kosher salt
1 tbsp Pickling spice
1 dash Sugar
1 cup White vinegar 5% acetic acid
2 cups Water purified, filtered



Source

Unfortunately, there were no instructions.  I will have to assume it need to sit a while to blend the flavors though do you ferment it or just keep it in the fridge?

And now it looks like you can buy already made pickle juice!

Anne Miller wrote:

I ran across this today and thought it was interesting!  Make homemade pickle juice!

Homemade Pickle Juice

1/2 tsp Dill weed, dried
1 clove Garlic
2 tbsp Kosher salt
1 tbsp Pickling spice
1 dash Sugar
1 cup White vinegar 5% acetic acid
2 cups Water purified, filtered

Unfortunately, there were no instructions.  I will have to assume it need to sit a while to blend the flavors though do you ferment it or just keep it in the fridge?

That's a basic dill pickle recipe. I'd say if you want to use it quickly for a quick pickle use, bring that water to a boil, add the spices, turn it off, let steep a few hours, add the vinegar and use it. For normal not speedy use (like putting eggs in it, which is a type of hot packing) mix it all, heat it to boil, pour over eggs, let sit sealed tight till eggs are done (I usually give them at least two weeks.) It doesn't ferment, it's too vinegary. It will infuse the spices into the vinegar water. No refrigeration required.

:D

Mix with ranch dip for a fun flavor

https://www.yellowblissroad.com/dill-pickle-ranch-dip/

You know how the mustard gets too thick to squirt out of the bottle? Pickle brine = mustard thinner.

I was wondering how on earth one DRANK the leftover juice and then I saw that recipe, only 1 part in 3 vinegar, ah understanding dawned, I make all our own pickles (not just cucumbers) and since it is pure vinegar/sugar/salt and any vegetable juice that comes out. well we don't do anything with it, it goes down the drain.

Skandi Rogers wrote:I was wondering how on earth one DRANK the leftover juice and then I saw that recipe, only 1 part in 3 vinegar, ah understanding dawned, I make all our own pickles (not just cucumbers) and since it is pure vinegar/sugar/salt and any vegetable juice that comes out. well we don't do anything with it, it goes down the drain.

Even though yours is almost straight vinegar, here are some suggestions for using it if it is not too sweet (like sweet pickles).  Add a tablespoonful when you make bone broth to help release the good stuff.  Add a tablespoonful when you make potato salad, even the sweet kind.  I think it might still be good for the pickled eggs.

To my knowledge, I don't think people just down it like you would a glass of water.  I use it for leg cramps, hiccups, etc. I just take the lid off the jar and take a good swallow.  It is a lifesaver when I get these in the middle of the night.

Anne Miller wrote:
To my knowledge, I don't think people just down it like you would a glass of water.  I use it for leg cramps, hiccups, etc. I just take the lid off the jar and take a good swallow.  It is a lifesaver when I get these in the middle of the night.

Some people do! I have a sister who always drinks hers. As a joke one year for her birthday I made her a batch of pickle juice knox blocks... She said "OH EWWW!" but then they all got eaten :D
So some people do :D I'm not claiming it's normal though.... :

Skandi Rogers wrote:To my knowledge, I don't think people just down it like you would a glass of water.

I don't normally, but I once meant to taste the brine from a jar of Great Gherkins baby kosher dills, but emptied the jar instead. Maybe I was low on salt? Some kind of craving, anyway. The next few jars, I sipped from, but never finished again. Since then, rarely even a sip. Now I'm going through pickles more slowly, too.

I have also used some brine to thin out the part of my sriracha sauce that wouldn't squirt out. I added it carefully so my hot sauce wouldn't get sour. To my taste buds there's just a hint of pickle that most folks would lose in the heat.

We marinade chicken in leftover pickle juice before making fried chicken. Tastes like KFC. Not too long! 20 minutes is plenty, otherwise it's all pickle taste and numbs your mouth, learned the hard way...

Along with many of the aforementioned, I put a splash in deviled eggs along with minced pickles. Where I used to live, it got poured at the base of azaleas and rhododendrons for the most beautiful plants!

I haven't succeeded recently with brined pickles, but make some every year with vinegar. I save the juice after finishing each jar, and use it  every few months to soak my five-gallon stainless steel pot which has hot water in it on top of the woodstove all winter, then is used to heat water for dishes and showers and also used for making tomato sauce and water-bath canning. We have hard well water, and minerals build up on the pan, especially in the winter sitting the stove. It's hard o scrub that stuff off--except after letting it soak a few hours in vinegar water. Then it comes right off.

Pickle juice, well i’ll Share my favourite secret for making the best potato salad ever. Is that when your potatoes are still hot. Soak them in the leftover pickle brine. Then when making the potato salad just add enough pickle brine to make a nice creamy dressing.   Then of course add your usual herbs and kefir.  Yes i make mine with kefir and sometimes a little sour cream. Yummy!

I put it in potato salad.  

Mary-Ellen Zands wrote:Pickle juice, well i’ll Share my favourite secret for making the best potato salad ever. Is that when your potatoes are still hot. Soak them in the leftover pickle brine. Then when making the potato salad just add enough pickle brine to make a nice creamy dressing.   Then of course add your usual herbs and kefir.  Yes i make mine with kefir and sometimes a little sour cream. Yummy!

I second this. The best potato salad, to me, is just potatoes, diced up dill pickles, Duke's mayo, and pickle juice. Pickle juice also makes the best coleslaw. I'm a Southern gal, and I am horrified at what passes for coleslaw (and cornbread!) now: sweet, sweet, sweet. That's just not Southern! Shredded cabbage, maybe a little shredded carrots (or maybe not), Duke's mayo, pickle juice, a scattering of celery seeds, salt to taste. That's coleslaw!

When I make tuna fish sandwiches I add pickle juice and mayo, something crunchy and a little sarracha. Mmmm. I'm going to make one right now...

My wife uses it to make the best rye bread.  It tastes great and it makes the homemade bread keep longer.  Normally the bread is great for a couple days, good for a couple more and then fits downhill quickly.  The rye bread with pickle juice is still quite good over a week out.  I suppose it acts as a preservative which homemade bread generally dies not contain.

drink it.
After taking Magnesium & other supplement to no avail.
I get adjustments & drink pickle juice, no more cramps every day.

I like to use it in soups. Add it after the heat is turned off to keep the good bacteria alive.

My wife went through a period where she had bad leg cramps.  She found the pickle juice really helped.  Walmart sells pickle juice, but she found it wasn't as effective as the jars with juice from jars of pickles.

As a child I loved to drink the juice when the pickles were all eaten. But that was the sweet kind of pickle juice. I still like pickles, but not that sweet.

I tend to put about 10 Habinaro peppers in a gallon jar of Dills. makes those pickle stealers in my house jump.

Last Thanksgiving I used pickle juice to brine our turkey and it was amazing.  Loved it.  I have been brining turkeys for the last 6 years since I first heard about it.  Makes the meat so moist and yummy but pickle juice added a nice flavor that can't be duplicated any other way.  It was wonderful.

Not discountimg all the useful ideas.  By all means re-use!
However, if none appeal and your only option is the drain...
Rethink it.  Pickle juice is basically flabored vinegar.  Vinegar = organic weed killer.  Rather than dump it diwn your drain, pour it on your weeds.  Make it work for you!  

I either drink the (fermented) pickle juice plain, or I add vegetables, as others have mentioned (e.g. cucumber slices). One of my favorite things to do is adding chopped up cooked beets, and once those are used up, pickling hard-boiled eggs, which turn beautifully pink. You can also get that effect from any other ferments that are reddish or pink, e.g. watermelon radishes.

I put pickle juice (kosher dill kind) in my chicken salad. Tastiest thing ever!

Wow! I never knew there were so many ways to use pickle juice. Thanks guys.

When I was in Ukraine my wife and I would attend weddings, birthdays, visit friends/family, etc. All of these events included Vodka. Ukrainians drink pickle juice after a late night event to curb the effects of too much Wodka. Pickle juice is a hangover cure. Also has some use to replace electrolytes. I would just drink any pickling liquids we had on hand. Love it. So delicious.

Edward R. Thompson wrote:I tend to put about 10 Habinaro peppers in a gallon jar of Dills. makes those pickle stealers in my house jump.

Hi Edward, and welcome to Permies.  I'm going to do this as soon as I get some peppers.  Thanks.

Teresa Greene wrote:I put pickle juice (kosher dill kind) in my chicken salad. Tastiest thing ever!

Hi Teresa.  Welcome to Permies!  I think I may have a lot of chicken salad in my future, so I'm going to try this.

I know in college they used pickle juice for shots -- called a pickleback i believe. I haven't made any pickles yet, but the store bought dill juice I'll drink, just a bit at a time. I used to grow dill, I think i'll have to take it up again! I just love the taste of it. I can't think of why you couldn't re-use it for more pickles...might make a good vinaigrette base -- just add oil. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-basic-vinaigrette-226699

Housemate who is in the process of moving out just finished off a gallon jar of pickles and left us the brine.  I boiled 3 dozen eggs (starting to get a little backed up with the girls all laying but being too busy to cook anything!) and the kids were immediately hopping in to help (so they could sneak off with a couple eggs for themselves, of course, but that's how canning goes).







I think I could maybe fit another dozen in there if I wanted to fill it the whole way and not leave any head space.

A local flavor here at Zip's restaurants is "fry sauce" witch is equal parts ketchup and mayo then dill pickle juice.  I think it's 1 tablespoon of juice to every two cups of blended condiments (so one cup mayo, one cup ketchup, one tbsp dill pickle juice). It's AMAZING on chicken, absolutely crazy good.

So many great ideas to try!
I've reused the juice by putting some cucumber spears in the jar, along with some garlic salt & chopped dill to increase the "tang factor" of the flavor. If there's not enough to fully cover the cukes I just add some vinegar to the jar with the extra dill & salt.
Like many mentioned, it is a good marinade and tenderizer for meat. I also use it in potato salad, deviled eggs, chicken/tuna salad, and other recipes that often call for chopped pickles.
One of my favorite things to add it to is guacamole, as it compliments the avocado taste, and seems to help keep it bright green longer, instead of turning that brown color that leftover guac often gets.